Please come home
by Malluchan
Summary: We love you, we miss you, and we're worried about you. Your dog misses you, even. She's going crazy. You have to come home or we'll die trying to bring you back. I don't know what we'd do if we lost you...you're what holds us up, after all...


The night loomed over him like a massive tree, rising up tall out of the earth and bowing its great head all the way down to the opposite horizon. Dark and cool, it had a massive power. It could hide what you were doing, or it could advertise you. It could give comfort or take it, depending on where you stood. You had to learn to use it to your advantage.

Tonight, the darkness was a friend. It wrapped around him like a cloak, shielding him, almost tangible, cushioning his footsteps. Nobody would find him now. Nobody would find him ever.

* * *

On the other side of the city, sleep still held people in its grasp.

Three brothers still slept, concrete shielding them from prying eyes, gateways and hidden passages concealing them from human knowledge.

Gradually, as the hours passed, dawn crept into the blackness, staining the edge of the world pink as it awoke. Deep in the sewers of New York, Leonardo stirred.

He gave a sleep-tainted groan as an unwelcome touch pulled him towards waking, early even for him to rise. Something sharp scraped insistently against his skin, but it was the droning whine that annoyed him to the point of opening his eyes.

Normally his waking view showed the expanse of concrete floor that surrounded him, but this morning his eyes met with a white, furry face, framed by honey-colored coating, with worried coffee eyes looking down at him. It was Hershel, Raphael's mutt.

He had found her in an alleyway, crying for her mother. She had been about 3 months old. He brought her home, intending only to keep her until he found her owner. But her owner was never found. Donatello informed them that she was an American English Coonhound/Labrador mix. And this morning she was worried about something.

Normally she spent her nights next to Raph, curled up protectively at the foot of his bed, ready to pounce at any threat, certainly faithful until death. Leo could not fathom why she would be here in his bedroom, but over the years he had learned to trust Hershel. She had a nose for danger.

He stumbled out of bed in a daze and took hold of her collar, following the agitated canine through the lair to Raphael's room. His bed was vacated, cold, as though he had not been there for a few hours. He was jerked to alert almost instantly, and a thorough search of the lair proved him unsettlingly absent.

He raced to wake the rest of his family.

* * *

He splashed through the rays of dawn slanting through the alleyways, raced to get as far away as possible before full light hit the city. Full light was not a cloak of solitude. It was an open window of vulnerability.

* * *

Hershel scratched at the lair entrance, begging to be let out. But Leo knew if she was released, she would lose herself in the maze of the city and never be seen again.

Raphael was of a hot-tempered disposition and normally disappeared for a few hours. But never in the early morning. Never without Hershel.

Sensei said they should all settle down and eat breakfast, and if Raphael did not return by 8:00-their regular training time-then a thorough search of the surrounding area was in order.

* * *

He finally collapsed in the corner of a deserted alley, in one of the more crime-tainted neighborhoods of Manhattan. They would never find him here.

In the watered-down light making its way through the alley, he pondered why he was there. Not why he was on the earth; not why he had been born; simply why he was _here_, in this particular place. Why he had run away.

_Second best._ It was because he was second best to everybody.

Second best to Sensei, who favored Leo. Second best to Leo, who favored himself. Second to Donnie, who cared more about April. Second to Mikey, who liked even Hershel better than he liked Raph...

Hershel. Hershel was at home still, probably crying for him. He hadn't taken her along because she would slow him down. Leo could take care of her.

He had decided to run away. To become a hero to the people of New York, even if an anonymous one. Then at least a few people would respect him without Leo taking all of the glory.

With these thoughts held in his mind, he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Leo paced the dojo, unable to concentrate on food. His stomach seemed to beg for breakfast, but the ninja team leader didn't think he could keep anything down.

What if it was his fault that Raphael was gone? What had he said, what had he done?

_A lot. _He could be blamed for a lot of things.

When 8:00 came, Leo practically jumped to the exit of the lair, calling to his brothers to keep up. He was determined to fins Raphael within the day or die trying.


End file.
